Level 1

43 points

Why can't Spotlight Search find my apps in IOS 11 anymore?

In IOS 10, I used the Spotlight Search ability (pull screen down) to quickly locate applications installed on my iPhone. By only having to type the first few letters of an application, it was intuitive and saved a lot of time especially when you have lots of apps installed. Now with IOS11 I'm finding that only some of my apps are being located. Having researched why, it seems that in order for all my apps to be 'found' and listed in the Applications search bar, I now have to go into the Search settings and manually enable ALL my applications in order for Spotlight to find them. What the heck! Why would you deliberately remove a perfectly sensible ability to quickly locate and run an application with a system that now requires me to have to manually update the Search settings each and every time I install an application?

I understand the need to be able to switch off application data from being searched (which was how it worked in IOS 10), but the names of installed applications should always be available for Spotlight. Am I missing something?

iPhone 6, iOS 11.0.1

Posted on Sep 28, 2017 9:08 AM

Top-ranking reply

Diana.McCall

Level 7

21,297 points

Posted on Sep 28, 2017 9:55 AM

Hi. You don't need to enable the individual applications. Just enable Suggestions in Search in Settings > Siri and Search. As you type, you'll see possible words (completions). Pick the correct one and it will find the app. It no longer finds the app immediately based on the first few letters of the name.

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41 replies

Storrm68 Author

Level 1

43 points

Nov 1, 2017 1:24 AM in response to Storrm68

I found a subreddit which is also discussing this issue. I hope this problem gets fixed soon. It’s incredibly annoying not to be able to quickly find apps and have to go hunting for them.

https://www.reddit.com/r/iOS11/comments/70bdqf/ios_11_spotlight_search/

Max72

Level 1

4 points

Nov 14, 2017 12:54 AM in response to Storrm68

Apple, could you please bring the old app substring search back within spotlight and fix the app suggestion box as in IOS10. Otherwise you could probably dump the whole search feature functionality. For me that was one of the most used feature on my phone.

Nov 14, 2017 5:36 AM in response to Storrm68

I'm holding off updating to next IOS 11 release till I see a fix for this, I only like to update when there's something worthwhile. As it is, Spotlight Search brings up Settings and App Store suggestions based on substring but not the app itself!

With certain other phone OSs you can install an alternative launcher to solve issues. I guess this won't be possible on my iPhone?

Nov 14, 2017 6:07 AM in response to Thamesway

Hi. There are several Launcher apps in the app store. See if one meets your needs.

If you'll already on iOS 11, deferring updates may cause you to miss useful bug fixes.

And, if you're still on iOS 10, your decision may mean you'll remain on iOS 10 indefinitely.

Storrm68 Author

Level 1

43 points

Nov 14, 2017 9:37 AM in response to Diana.McCall

Thanks for the continuing replies and suggestions Diana. Its appreciated. I wasn't aware that such launchers existed in the app store, but I'll take a look. However, in this case, I'll choose not install a 3rd party app when there is supposed to be functionality within the core OS, as there was in previous versions of IOS and indeed there exists on my Mac Spotlight search today. Having to remember to go into the Siri and Search settings every time I install a new app and to enable it is simply not sustainable nor friendly. I end up with so many search results when looking for something on my phone, just because I've had to manually enable each and every application in Siri & Search in order to quickly find one of the 50 apps I have installed on my phone. If anyone thinks this is acceptable, I'd love to know the reasoning so we could have a proper informed discussion on the subject, but I feel I simply wont be heard nor will anything ever be done about it. I've registered my complaint with Apple and sent a suggestion to the proper channels. For the meantime, people will simply need to get used to not being able to find their installed apps on IOS 11 (unless they install an app to find them!)

Nov 14, 2017 10:38 AM in response to Diana.McCall

As soon as I had typed the final and last letter 'e' of A p p S t o r e in my Spotlight search I was able to check the App Store for Launchers. Quite interesting and I will try the free version.

Nov 18, 2017 8:43 AM in response to Storrm68

I'm assuming that some people have taken the trouble to directly report this as a bug to Apple. Problem is, Apple Support is likely to go into denial mode by managing to misunderstand the description of the problem, assuming like some of the posters here that you should enable searching within apps etc.
I remember when that great Apple Numbers spreadsheet app that was so usable on a phone was changed beyond recognition to become unusable. No matter how people reported the issue,
Apple support just couldn't see it from the real user perspective and I believe it's not been fixed to this day (so I stopped using it).

nasredin

Level 1

15 points

Nov 23, 2017 12:42 AM in response to Thamesway

ok so apple removed my post because i complained, yes and i will ccomplain again, becouse there are no fix for problems like this... yes and i will write again apple have broken all my devices.... dear apple focus on fix problems people complains and stop deleting it it will not fix it.

Nov 28, 2017 11:41 PM in response to Storrm68

I am noticing that when I start to search for say, my minikeepass app, instead it searches within my emails among other things for anything containing 'mini'. It never finds the app unless I have correctly typed on the last 's' of the full app name.

This is a waste of time for me as all I want to do when typing 'mini...' is for the suggestion of the app 'minikeepass' to pop up instantly. So in Settings > Siri & Search apps list to Mail - and there, for Mail, Siri and Search is OFF. So how do I prevent Spotlight Search form hunting around inside my emails when I don;t need this?

Also, do I recall that in IOS 10 there used to be a 'Spotlight Search' section in Settings? I cannot find that now, so everything seems governed by the Siri & Search section which is confusing as I'm not sure if it means 'Search from within an app' or 'Search inside the app from Spotlight Search'.

Storrm68 Author

Level 1

43 points

Dec 20, 2017 1:36 PM in response to Thamesway

Thanks Thamesway for taking the time to share what you found. Although this is a short-term solution, it unfortunately requires you to remember to do this each time you install a new application. Also, if like me you have many, many, many ⚠ apps, this manual process is extremely laborious and useless when you consider that the previous IOS version searched for app names automatically and without configuration (just like it does in Mac OS!!). I still cant fathom why Apple would intentionally break an incredibly useful feature of Spotlight Search, especially when it doesnt work this way on Mac's

nasredin

Level 1

15 points

Dec 20, 2017 11:46 PM in response to Storrm68

it's still not fixed from apple? i really cant work with my device and i don't want idex data in app? Does aybody know if android works correctly in this way? looks like apple doesn't care about customers anymore, i'm looking for device which will work and not complicate work 😟

nasredin

Level 1

15 points

Dec 21, 2017 6:43 AM in response to Thamesway

it is not solution, i don't want indexing content of apps, someone already wrote it here. Also it mess search result with content and application name. Also many people have hundreds off apps, this just doesn't make sense for me.

nasredin

Level 1

15 points

Dec 21, 2017 8:02 AM in response to Thamesway

i don't use siri at all becouse apple didn§t localised it to my langue still... but i understand your workaround its also what they wrote on macobserver during beta. i'm still not interest to change value for all my apps, its just too many apps... but i'm happy u did it, it was ok at ios10 stopped work in ios11 i did nothing wrong. but thx again for your suggestions.

nasredin

Level 1

15 points

Dec 23, 2017 2:09 AM in response to Sandbox Wizard

ok thanks, i'm decided to start looking for different platform, it's not only problem i have. All my problems started with tvos 11 and ios11... so i think this platform not form me, after 10 years of happy using ind slowly ended 😟

Dec 26, 2017 11:54 PM in response to Thamesway

I agree w your statements. I can’t find the % of battery use on the iPhone X or the search spotlight option on this phone. Updated to ios 11 and the search function in settings doesn’t work...animoji is not a big enough sell to remove BASIC FUNCTIONALITY. It’s a no brainer we need the phone to be useful. Apple has lost its visionary who understood the value of intuitive use of the phone. Apple has truly lost its way and is stepping away from its core values...disheartened and so annoyed. When they charge $1000+ for a phone don’t remove features please! I also am annoyed with the siri search suggestions I HAVE OVER 200 apps! Really?! Do I really need to customize for EVERY app??? So annoyed right now...need solutions...still not over the iphone 6 battery fiasco. All I gotta say is this battery better last...so disrespectful to the customer when we spend our hard earned money for poorly functioning parts or missing functionality.

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Why can't Spotlight Search find my apps in IOS 11 anymore?